Alum Lands Fulbright

Parker Gadbois ’09 has earned a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship to teach English in Yilan, Taiwan, about an hour south of Taipei. He begins his assignment on August 1.

At North Central, Gadbois majored in English and minored in Chinese and secondary education. He has been teaching English at East Aurora High School, and saw the Fulbright as a way to share his love of teaching and improve his Chinese skills and cultural knowledge. “My ultimate goal is to teach Chinese in America and the Fulbright gives me a platform to make that happen,” he says. “And this is all possible thanks to North Central College.”

Gadbois’ experiences included studying abroad in China and Japan, tutoring in the Writing Center, volunteering for Junior/Senior Scholars, writing for the North Central Review and working with the Summer Language Institute.

“Knowing Chinese was not required for the Fulbright but I think they favored the fact that I want to improve my Chinese skills and learn more about the culture,” Gadbois adds.

“Parker always impressed the Chinese and Japanese people we encountered,” says Judy Brodhead, associate professor of English, who accompanied Gadbois and his peers to China and Japan. “He is devoted to Chinese language and culture and embraces the ideal of mutual understanding that the Fulbright program is grounded in.”